In Memory of I.K. Dairo

by Andrew C. Frankel (Graviton African Music Productions)

The first truly international star of African music, Mr. Dairo specialized
in juju music, a lively mixture of traditional Yoruba social dance
drumming, songs, and praise poetry, Latin American rhythms, and Christian
church hymns, performed on guitar, percussion, and talking drums. In a
career spanning more than fifty years, Dairo made hundreds of records, and
toured Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, paving the way for younger
musicians such as King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, SIna Peters and many others.

Born in Offa, Kwara State, Mr. Dairo joined his first juju band in 1942,
and spent the next ten years as a migrant laborer and cloth trader, while
continuing to perform music on the side. In 1956 he returned to his
family's home town, Ijebu-Ijesha, and formed his first band, the Morning
Star Orchestra. In 1959 the band was rechristened the Blue Spots, a name
retained until Mr. Dairo's death.

Mr. Dairo's meteoric rise paralleled the emergence of Nigeria as an
independent nation (1960), and his music still symbolizes that period for
many Nigerians. Kings, Ambassadors, Businessmen, Heads of state all
counted themselves among his fans. Beginning in the late 1950s, he
introduced new elements
into juju music, including the ten-button accordion and Latin-derived
rhythms. At the same time, Dairo conducted research into the oral
traditions of the various Yoruba sub-groups. His ability to extend the
appeal of juju music across ethnic lines while at the same time
reaffirming the genre's links to 'deep' Yoruba culture lay at the heart
of his success. Dairo was also a brilliant arranger, one of the first
African musicians to master the 3-minute song form, required by the
recording technology of the time.

Another source of Dairo's appeal was his skill as a composer. His songs
covered a range of topics: "Salome," a love song in praise of a young
woman with "eyes like traps and teeth as white as cowries"; "O Wuro Lojo,"
a song about the value of hard work (" The morning of a person's life is
like the foundation of a house--lay it on rock, not on shifting sand");
and the 1963 song "Ka Sora," in which Dairo prophesied the Nigerian Civil
War years before the outbreak of military hostilities. Mr. Dairo said that
songs often came to him at night, in dreams, borne upon the wind and the
wings of angels.

In 1963 Queen Elizabeth awarded Dairo the MBE (Member of the British
Empire) for his contributions to the culture of the Commonwealth. He is
the only African musician ever to recieve such an honor. In 1966 a music
poll was held in Spear, a popular Nigerian magazine, and I. K. Dairo won
handily. The readers' responses convey some sense of his
enormous appeal: "Sensible hedonist. . Dairo's consistent drumming,
sedulouslity, impartiality and unservitudeness make him the Shakespeare of
Music. An earthly god of music!"; "His music contains a lot of the up and
down of his world. It teaches us knowledge, moral spirits and other
things." "His is music without tears."

Chief Dairo was well respected by his peers and fans throughout Nigeria.
In January 1991 over 2,000 people turned out to celebrate Dairo's 60th
Birthday and his "official retirment" from music. Among the crowd were all
of Nigeria's top musicians civic and business leaders. Less than a month
later he recieved an invitation to come on tour of North America and so
posponed his retirement to take the Blue Spots on the first of three North
American tours.

In the 1970s and 80s, Mr. Dairo continued to develop his
cosmopolitan-traditionalist approach to juju music, touring England,
Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Russia, Japan, and North America.
He worked for the welfare of musicians, helping to found the Musical
Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) and serving as President of the
Nigerian chapter of the Performing Rights Society (PRS). The leader of a
burgeoning syncretic Christian movement in Lagos, he was subject of
several published biographies. Mr . Dairo's final professional position
was as a member of the Ethnomusicology faculty at the University of
Washington (Seattle) in 1994-95.

At the time of his death Dairo and the Blue Spots were working on material
for a new album. Using material he composed during his stay in the U.S.,
Dairo was ecstatic about recording this new material influenced by contact
with musicians from all over the world. Unfortunately, that record was
never to be.

This article was written by Andy Frankel and is republished here with his permission. Copyright 1996 Andrew M. Frankel (Graviton). RootsWorld thanks him for this contribution.
Photo courtesy of Rakumi Records/Music of the World